Edelman’s annual Trust Barometer study has found some startling revelations for business and media leaders around the world, but particularly in Australia.
For instance, 68 per cent of people believe business leaders purposely mislead people, up 12 percentage points year from 2021 by saying things they know are false or gross exaggerations.
Meanwhile, 70 per cent of people believe journalists and reporters purposely mislead people, up 11 per cent from 2021.
“Economic fears have metastasized into grievance,” wrote CEO Richard Edelman announcing the barometer.
“We observe a profound shift in popular sentiment, a move beyond political polarisation to aggressive advocacy for self-interest. Throughout the elections of the past year, citizens have raised their voices against business, government, and the wealthy across the globe. Incumbent parties have been ousted in Western democracies, including the US, UK, France, Germany and Canada. Business has been pushed back on for its involvement in societal issues, from DEI to sustainability.
“Grievance stems from a conviction that the system is unfair, business and government make things worse, and the rich keep getting richer. A growing sense of alienation is so profound that nearly two-thirds of respondents now fear being discriminated against, up 10 percentage points from the previous year. Even high-earners are increasingly worried about being made a victim—up 11 points to 62 per cent. Three quarters of respondents worry about their pay not keeping up with inflation. There is deep concern about job loss due to the impact of innovations like automation, which 58 per cent of employees worry about, and of globalization — 62 per cent worry about international trade conflicts affecting their livelihoods.”
However, while 60 per cent of people hold grievances against businesses, government and the rich—62 per cent in Australia—people believe that they need more action from businesses, not less.
In fact, people across the world believe that businesses need to be doing more on the cost of living and climate change in particular.
Interestingly, at the same time people around the world seem to believe that businesses and the media have become both more competent and more ethical since 2020. For instance, the media has gone from a -17 net ethical score to a -16 and -7 net competent score to -2. Businesses have moved even further with a swing from a -2 net ethical score to a +17. Its competency rating has increased from +14 to +15.
Still, businesses remain the most trusted institutions, with 26 per cent of people around the world trusting them—though this is down one per cent. NGOs are second with 58 per cent trusting them, again down one per cent. Some 52 per cent of people around the world trust their governments and the media, up one and two per cent, respectively.
Australians are some of the least trustworthy people of their media in the world—with just 37 per cent trusting in the sector, down three per cent. Only the UK and Japan are less trusting. China, perhaps unsurprisingly, are the most trusting. In Nigeria and Argentina, trust in the media climbed seven and nine per cent, respectively.
Trust in all news sources around the world has declined—with search engines falling the most by 5 per cent to 63. Traditional media and owned media dropped four per cent to 58 and 47, respectively. Trust in social media dropped two per cent to 42.
In fact, some 69 per cent of Australians believe it is becoming harder to tell if news is from respected media or an individual trying to deceive people.
Similarly, just 47 per cent of Aussie trust the government, down three per cent. Trust in businesses among Aussies has declined four per cent to 54, trust in NGOs has declined two per cent to 56.